Hardcore to Be Pushed Aside This Console Generation?

Gamasutra asks questions directly of analysts on a semi-regular basis, in a feature they call 'Analyze This'. This week they quiz analysts about the rising influence of casual players, and what this means for the dedicated hardcore gamer. The ubiquitous Michael Pachter: "I think some portion of family growth will come from aging of original Xbox owners, who will have families of their own and will likely play games with their children. I also think that newer features on the Elite, like the 80GB hard drive, will encourage more family activities, like downloading TV shows and movies. In essence, I don't see [Microsoft] trying to cannibalize the Wii audience, so much as to trying to offer an alternative with the Xbox 360 as the home media center. I don't think that there is any real threat to the long-term survival of the Xbox 360."

Comments

Re:A few thoughts

[Pope]

The younger but growing up gamer generation seems to understand that new systems will probably be out every 5 years or so, and don't seem to mind that part too much

But that's the way it's always been! 5 years is the standard video game generation, and Microsoft's and Sony's recent attempts to shorten that should only invite contempt. I'll also throw out there that calling XBox 2 the "360" as a way to try to capture the PS3's name and try to convince gamers that it really is part of the same generation is nothing but marketing bullshit, in the same way that Macromedia never release a version 6 of Freehand to try to leap Illustrator's version number.

Re:Atari say's please use caution...

[(A)*(B)!0_-]

"Don't be a jackass"

Fuck you moron.

"Madden and the like tend to appeal to the wider audience which is mostly the casual ones...the ones that by Licensed movie games, GTA whatever and the bigger blockbuster titles."

Got any statistics to back that up, scumbag?

"but look at the audience it sells to and most of those seem to console owners that have nothing but the previous years madden and a handful of other sports games."

You have no proof of this whatsoever. You've cited no statistics or studies that have shown this relationship. You also haven't even come close to defining what a "hardcore" gamer is.

"I just spoke from example, most people I know that are really into sports games enough to buy Madden year after year are pretty much only into sports games, its almost like a niche of its own."

Oh! You've got anecdotal evidence! Well, that must prove something, right? Go fuck yourself. Take a statistics course. You've stated nothing.